More Snow 5th January 2010

Couldn't get into work today. The snow is as deep as its ever been in 25 years here in Tintwistle. I went for a walk down Arnfield Lane to the bridge and along the side of the reservoir returning back along the A628. This view is of Mottram Church on the hill, Arnfield reservoir in the foreground is completely frozen over and covered in snow. The best part of the landscape today is the trees. They are all uniformly dusted in snow so they look grey from a distance instead of the usual winter black. In fact the photo might as well have been shot in black and white, there is almost no colour at all there.
This afternoon switched on the computer and checked my emails. I have set up a Google Alert for Kathleen Jamie, one of my favourite writers. I did a posting on her book "Findings" here. Today's alert told me that last night on Radio 3 Kathleen Jamie presented a feature on North Rona, a tiny uninhabited island 45 miles out into the Atlantic Ocean west of Cape Wrath in Sutherland. It was a captivating program, we heard her helping to survey Leach's Petrels by playing recordings of the birds back to them in their nest holes. She stayed on the island 2 weeks and helped archaeologists mapping the island's 8th-century early Celtic Christian buildings. This program is still available for a short time on BBC iPLayer here

Camping at Clachtoll

The Split Rock at Clachtoll
Originally uploaded by Brenden Preece

Last week took a weeks holiday (on my own) camping on the wonderful campsite at Clachtoll in Sutherland. Its along drive.. over 500 miles from home. It can be done in a day but not a good idea. I took a overnight stop a a Travel Inn both ways. The holiday was perfect, the weather was dry when I arrived, surprising after driving through torrential rain at Inverness. It stayed dry and very hot until the wednesday.

Tintwistle Knarr

Sunday was a beautiful day took a trudge up to Tintwistle Knarr quarry. This is quite a stiff climb that takes you almost to the height of the Robinsons Moss plateau. I have not done this walk for many years I was a bit apprehensive but I was pleasantly surprised to find how fit I was (relatively speaking!) Anyway without an OS map to find the alternative way back down Arnfield Valley I called it a day after a venture onto the moors above the quarry. It was fairly quiet as regards the birds, meadow pipits in abundance but no willow warblers yet. I have been reading Simon Barnes "How to be a Bad Birdwatcher", I can highly recommend it, like me, he sets a lot of store in hearing the first willow warbler of spring.

Stained Glass PC Case

Picked this up off Technorati. A wonderful stained glass PC case. It was made for a contest on the Ultra Tech forum. Now as I have to have my PC in the living room thats the kind I would love to have. More pictures of the case (each side is different) can be found here.

TVfolk.net Music Video Site

TVFOLK.NET is a site hosting videos of Traditional Music from Northern Europe. They have got hundreds of tracks ranging from traditional solo fiddle tunes to full electric bands. Some of it is 'traditional' in the very widest sense, in ways that Scandinavians seem particularly broadminded. Anyway some of the music is brilliant and the quality of the videos is generally very good. The clip below is by no means typical but I find it amusing somehow. I use this because it took me a while to find out how to embed a movie, this was a random sample. If anyone understands what it is about please contact me! You can find the site here www.tvfolk.net